The present invention relates generally to hand sanitizing fluid dispensers and, more particularly, to blister packaging which may be worn on the wrist or mounted elsewhere so as to promote timely and convenient use. The method describing the use of the wrist mounted dispenser identifies techniques that overcomes recognized and longstanding problems that contribute to inadequate hand sanitation which is the single most important factor in causing nosocomial infections.
Each year more than 2 million hospital acquired infections occur in the United States, costing some $4.5 billion in additional charges. The Center for Disease Control estimates more than one-third of healthcare associated infections can be prevented through better infection control programs of which hand cleaning is the centerpiece for reducing the spread of infection. Hospitals are only one of many organizations burdened with hand-borne disease costs. A recent school study found that classrooms that made hand sanitizing fluid dispensers simply available for use showed a 20% reduction in student absenteeism due to illness as well as a 10% decrease in teacher absenteeism. And these are but two groups that lend themselves to study. Much large population segments like commuters, food handlers, eaters, clerks, caregivers, and others share the same risks and could reasonable expect significant personal benefits from improved hand hygiene. The overall societal, economic and health impacts of hand-borne pathogens is enormous; it is the intent of the present invention to substantially reduce this debilitating situation.
Several recent articles provide an understanding of the current level of technology available and further describe the significant limiting problems the present art faces.
In March 2001 an American Journal of Nursing article (“impact Rate of Compliance with Hand Antisepsis . . . ”) stated that 80,000 hospital deaths occur each year as a result of nosocomial infections contracted during hospital stays. Further, that “it's common knowledge that the hands of heath care workers can carry disease-causing organisms from one patient to another and that hand antisepsis before and after each patent contact is crucial to the prevention and control of nosocomial infection.”The reasons most often cited by hospital staff for failing to clean their hands adequately are inconvenience and no time. Given the hectic and demanding nature of their workload these are not excuses but simply statements of reality. That convenience and time are critical factors in maintaining hand sanitation is underscored by the finding in this study that placing hand sanitizing fluid dispensers “in the hallways outside patient rooms were nearly 30 times more likely to be used than dispensers mounted anywhere inside the rooms.” Yet the most disturbing finding of this study was that full compliance with hand antisepsis guidelines was an unrealistic goal. That while hand sanitizing fluids took less time than washing and the placement of numerous dispenser bottles made matters somewhat more convenient, even with the heightened attention impact of the study itself (the Hawthorne effect), compliance did not achieve more than 60% at any time during the study. And it is well understood that over time, after the study is done and gone, a drift back to much lower compliance rates is inevitable; the dispenser bottle becomes just one more thing in the room, like soap at the sink, to be used when time and convenience allows.
In March 2002 an article in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology (“Promotion of Hand Hygiene: Magic, Hype or Scientific Challenge?”) restates the conditions for promoting adequate hand hygiene. “Among enabling factors, engineering control must be considered for the successful promotion of hand hygiene. In particular, it involves making hand hygiene easy, convenient, and possible in a timely fashion.” Another observation made is that the higher rates of compliance seen in studies can only be sustained when some form of cost-effective, non-intrusive monitoring is invented. “My personal opinion is that obtaining a sustained and never-ending Hawthorne effect associated with improved compliance with hand hygiene and decreased infection and cross-transmission rates should be the dream of every hospital epidemiologist. Let's find a cost-effective way to induce it.” This need has remained unfilled until now.
In July 2000 another article in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology (“Using Alcohol for Hand Antisepsis—Dispelling Old Myths”) the qualities and values of alcohol-based hand antiseptics are described. The author points out the cost benefits of hand sanitizing fluids in hospitals. “ . . . administrators should consider that modest increase in acquisition costs for alcohol-based hand hygiene products are tiny in comparison to excess hospital costs associated with nosocomial infections. If increased use of an alcohol gel or rinse reduces the number of serious nosocomial infections by a few a year, the cost savings from prevented infections should more than offset incremental costs of using alcohol-based preparations.” These offset costs are those the hospital would charge as operational costs. Not considered are the much more substantial costs of the damage awards issuing from pain and suffering lawsuits won by patient and their attorneys for the hospital's failure to follow best practice protocols.
In March 2001 an article in Emerging Infectious Diseases (“Antiseptic Technology: Access, Affordability, and Acceptance”) further reinforces the findings that time and convenience are critical compliance factors. Detailed costs of implementing a hand hygiene program are also provided.
A final article in the October 2000 issue of Family Medicine (“Alcohol-free Instant Hand Sanitizer Reduces Elementary School Illness Absenteeism”) reports a remarkable reduction in absenteeism when hand sanitizers were introduced in public school classrooms. Results showed students using hand sanitizing fluids “were found to have 41.9% fewer illness-related absence days, representing a 28.9% and a 49.7% drop in gastrointestinal- and respiratory-related illness, respectively. Conclusion: Daily use of the instant hand sanitizer was associated with significantly lower rates of illness-related absenteeism.” In this study the close monitoring and continual instruction of the test group by teachers largely abrogated the issues of time and convenience. Nevertheless, it clearly indicates the significant impact consistent and rigorous hand sanitation can have in schools and the implications for parallel benefits at all levels of society are obvious. As the reports point out in describing the interlinking cost of disease “Even if one doesn't have school-age children, it is necessary to understand the importance and benefits of good hand hygiene, not only in clinical practice but also in the greater community. Vital tax dollars will be saved on expenses for remedial student services and employee work time by this simple and effective way to decrease illness-related absenteeism.”
That improved hand hygiene can be achieved by using various hand sanitizing fluids is beyond question, the problems preventing this known technique for achieving a high degree of use (compliance) are equally understood as being time and convenience. A compact wrist mounted at hand package dispensing unitized hand sanitizing fluids can largely overcome these twin factors. No such product is in the marketplace today and a review of commercial literature found no such product description or even the suggestion of such a solution. Prior art as described in the patent literature offered few relevant discoveries and these will be discussed as follows. The patent art can best be divided into three subject areas: Wearable Liquid Dispensers; Carried Hand Sanitizing Fluid Dispensers; and Blister Packaging.
There have been numerous prior art devices for dispensing liquids, eight that are wearable and relevant in some fashion are as follows:
Anderson U.S. Pat. No. 2,235,350 disclosed in 1941 a wrist bracelet with a hollow chamber for holding a liquid, dischargeable out an opening controlled by a needle valve. The lotion is dispensed by a gravity flow from the bracelet.
Lerro U.S. Pat. No. 4,078,660 disclosed a blister style package attached as a bracelet to a wrist. The cavity formed by the blister contained instructions and medicine for use in an emergency. The purpose of the alert bracelet with a hermetically sealed pill was to assure that emergency medication would be available anywhere under any condition.
Kriss U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,876 disclosed a dispenser of body lotions worn on the wrist. It employed the use of flexible sidewalls whereby upon removal of the cap and squeezing some lotion would be discharged. The dispenser was designed for use in the shower whereby the user could select soap, shampoo, and conditioner from various packets on their wrist.
Harrigan U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,688 discloses a suntan lotion bracelet in the shape of a flexible tube body filled with lotion. Caps at each end, with joining male and female aspects, form a clasp by which the tube forms a bracelet.
Hippely U.S. Pat. No. 5,261,570 discloses a flexible liquid container for suntan lotion, perfume, or repellent to be hung around the neck or carried in a pocket. The advancement in the art was the inclusion of a flexible mirror mounted on the sidewall of the dispenser.
LeFevre U.S. Pat. No. 5,622,293 disclosed another flexible liquid tube container with novel barbed or barrel end caps that formed a clasp arrangement for encircling the wrist.
Timms U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,363 disclosed a lotion dispenser that incorporates various cavities that accept replaceable lotion filled cartridges. The dispenser could be carried in a pocket, notebook or purse.
Taylor U.S. Pat. No. 6,173,866 disclosed a wearable container of potable liquid attached to the wrist by Velcro fasteners.
None of the eight wearable liquid dispensers disclosed or suggested a wrist mounted or blister packaged device associated with dispensing hand sanitizing fluids. Three patents in the Carried Hand Sanitizing Fluid Dispensers group are as follow:
Kocher U.S. Pat. No. 6,228,375 discloses a small single-use disposable container of hand sanitizing fluids, similar to the catsup packet at a fast food restaurant. It is to be carried in the pocket and used discreetly for dispensing an application as needed.
Lewis U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,357 discloses a two-part dispenser arrangement consisting of a holster and a removable flexible wall container for ready deployment. A key advancement to the art disclosed is that the holster's mounting swivels and thus keeps the product container inverted to assure the gel is ready at the cap for immediate discharge.
Mahaffey U.S. Pat. No. 6,283,334 disclosed the same dispenser of Lewis '357 with additional claims for wearability and multiple types of dispensers used with a common mounting element.
None of the three Carried Hand Sanitizing Fluid devices disclosed or suggested a wrist mounted or blister packaged device associated with dispensing hand sanitizing fluids. The prior art for blister packaging as a disposable dispensing apparatus has a long and extensive history. Bubble or blister packaging has been utilized for the simple holding of a pill to complex configurations adapted to contain a hydrophilic contact lens in a sterile aqueous solution. But nowhere was it found in the review that hand sanitizing fluids have been packaged for wrist attachment or mounted as described by the present invention.
The above discussed current practices and known forms of dispensers and packing, all were found deficient in several respects. Significantly, none of the above references taken in part or as a whole presents a convenient, timely, and effective way of facilitating the use of hand sanitizing fluids achievable by means of a wrist mounted dispenser. None overcome the recognized problems of time and convenience provided by the advancement of the art the present invention clearly achieves.